Gordon Brown has unveiled a $1.1 trillion (£747 billion) rescue fund for the
global economy at the end of the G20 summit in London.

The money is to be used to help struggling economies and is intended to help boost global trade.

The agreement came as the centrepiece of the summit communique, which was unveiled by Mr Brown on Thursday afternoon.

Announcing the plan, Mr Brown said: "This is the day the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words but with a plan for global recovery and reform."

Declaring that "the old Washington consensus is over", Mr Brown said that in making "six pledges", the G20 had made its message "clear and certain".

However, critics are likely to claim that the agreement has proved less ground-breaking and historic than the Prime Minister had hoped. Leaders have failed to agree on plans for a new globally-coordinated fiscal stimulus package, which he and Barack Obama, the US President, had favoured.

The first pledge, for radical reform of the global regulation of the financial system, will see hedge funds that are considered a potential threat to the stability of markets regulated.

An agreement was reached to "name and shame" tax havens that refuse to co-operate with international institutions. Mr Brown said that the OECD will publish the list of rogue sites later on Thursday

As disclosed by The Daily Telegraph, a new global crackdown on pay and bonuses for bankers was also agreed.

Mr Brown said that the second pledge would see the "first international agreement on cleaning up banks' toxic assets", though he did not specify what action would be taken. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, had urged the leaders to buy up more of the bad assets to get banks lending again.

Third, Mr Brown said that the leaders would "do what it takes" to boost international growth, though confirmed that there would be no fiscal stimulus package.

As part of the fourth pledge, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to be given access to an extra $750 billion (£509 billion), which will be lent to countries whose economies run into trouble.

As well as a $500 billion (£341 billion) package from the G20 countries, the IMF will also embark on an ambitious plan to effectively begin printing money. Countries will be able to swap so-called “special drawing rights” of up to $250 billion (£170 billion) issued by the IMF for currencies such as dollars and euros. This will provide a vast injection of money into the world's economies.

An extra $100 billion was promised for the multilateral development banks to lend to the poorest countries

In the fifth pledge, a new trade credit package, worth about $250 billion (£170 billion) was unveiled.

Finally, Mr Brown said that the world's poorest countries would receive $50 billion (£34 billion) in aid and insisted that the Millennium Development Goals would be met.

"This time of financial crisis is no time to walk away from our commitment to the world's poorest," Mr Brown said. "We will not pass by on the other side."

In total, the package is estimated to be worth about $1.1 trillion (£747 billion).

Stock markets around the world added to earlier gains on hopes the blitz of new measures would speed up the recovery of crippled banks, paving the way for an eventual economic recovery.

The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares was up more than 4 per cent at 4,129, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average in New York was up 3per cent.

Mr Brown confirmed that the G20 would meet again this year. He said that the IMF would monitor progress of the new package package and report back on whether "further action may be necessary".